Health and Social Needs in Three Migrant Worker Communities around La Romana, Dominican Republic, and the Role of Volunteers: A Thematic Analysis and Evaluation

Objective. For decades, Haitian migrant workers living in bateyes around La Romana, Dominican Republic, have been the focus of short-term volunteer medical groups from North America. To assist these efforts, this study aimed to characterize various health and social needs that could be addressed by volunteer groups. Design. Needs were assessed using semistructured interviews of community and professional informants, using a questionnaire based on a social determinants of health framework, and responses were qualitatively analysed for common themes. Results. Key themes in community responses included significant access limitations to basic necessities and healthcare, including limited access to regular electricity and potable water, lack of health insurance, high out-of-pocket costs, and discrimination. Healthcare providers identified the expansion of a community health promoter program and mobile medical teams as potential solutions. English and French language training, health promotion, and medical skills development were identified as additional strategies by which teams could support community development. Conclusion. Visiting volunteer groups could work in partnership with community organizations to address these barriers by providing short-term access to services, while developing local capacity in education, healthcare, and health promotion in the long-term. Future work should also carefully evaluate the impacts and contributions of such volunteer efforts

Repurposing existing medications for coronavirus disease 2019: protocol for a rapid and living systematic review

BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has no confirmed specific treatments. However, there might be in vitro and early clinical data as well as evidence from severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome that could inform clinicians and researchers. This systematic review aims to create priorities for future research of drugs repurposed for COVID-19. METHODS This systematic review will include in vitro, animal, and clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of a list of 34 specific compounds and 4 groups of drugs identified in a previous scoping review. Studies will be identified both from traditional literature databases and pre-print servers. Outcomes assessed will include time to clinical improvement, time to viral clearance, mortality, length of hospital stay, and proportions transferred to the intensive care unit and intubated, respectively. We will use the GRADE methodology to assess the quality of the evidence. DISCUSSION The challenge posed by COVID-19 requires not just a rapid review of drugs that can be repurposed but also a sustained effort to integrate new evidence into a living systematic review. TRIAL REGISTRATION PROSPERO 2020 CRD42020175648

Search for long-lived particles decaying to leptons with large impact parameter in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search for new long-lived particles decaying to leptons using proton–proton collision data produced by the CERN LHC at s√=13TeV is presented. Events are selected with two leptons (an electron and a muon, two electrons, or two muons) that both have transverse impact parameter values between 0.01 and 10cm and are not required to form a common vertex. Data used for the analysis were collected with the CMS detector in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 118 (113)fb−1 in the ee channel (eμ and μμ channels). The search is designed to be sensitive to a wide range of models with displaced eμ, ee, and μμ final states. The results constrain several well-motivated models involving new long-lived particles that decay to displaced leptons. For some areas of the available phase space, these are the most stringent constraints to date

Global variation in anastomosis and end colostomy formation following left-sided colorectal resection

Background End colostomy rates following colorectal resection vary across institutions in high-income settings, being influenced by patient, disease, surgeon and system factors. This study aimed to assess global variation in end colostomy rates after left-sided colorectal resection. Methods This study comprised an analysis of GlobalSurg-1 and -2 international, prospective, observational cohort studies (2014, 2016), including consecutive adult patients undergoing elective or emergency left-sided colorectal resection within discrete 2-week windows. Countries were grouped into high-, middle- and low-income tertiles according to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Factors associated with colostomy formation versus primary anastomosis were explored using a multilevel, multivariable logistic regression model. Results In total, 1635 patients from 242 hospitals in 57 countries undergoing left-sided colorectal resection were included: 113 (6·9 per cent) from low-HDI, 254 (15·5 per cent) from middle-HDI and 1268 (77·6 per cent) from high-HDI countries. There was a higher proportion of patients with perforated disease (57·5, 40·9 and 35·4 per cent; P < 0·001) and subsequent use of end colostomy (52·2, 24·8 and 18·9 per cent; P < 0·001) in low- compared with middle- and high-HDI settings. The association with colostomy use in low-HDI settings persisted (odds ratio (OR) 3·20, 95 per cent c.i. 1·35 to 7·57; P = 0·008) after risk adjustment for malignant disease (OR 2·34, 1·65 to 3·32; P < 0·001), emergency surgery (OR 4·08, 2·73 to 6·10; P < 0·001), time to operation at least 48 h (OR 1·99, 1·28 to 3·09; P = 0·002) and disease perforation (OR 4·00, 2·81 to 5·69; P < 0·001). Conclusion Global differences existed in the proportion of patients receiving end stomas after left-sided colorectal resection based on income, which went beyond case mix alone

Health and Social Needs in Three Migrant Worker Communities around La Romana, Dominican Republic, and the Role of Volunteers: A Thematic Analysis and Evaluation

Objective. For decades, Haitian migrant workers living in bateyes around La Romana, Dominican Republic, have been the focus of short-term volunteer medical groups from North America. To assist these efforts, this study aimed to characterize various health and social needs that could be addressed by volunteer groups. Design. Needs were assessed using semistructured interviews of community and professional informants, using a questionnaire based on a social determinants of health framework, and responses were qualitatively analysed for common themes. Results. Key themes in community responses included significant access limitations to basic necessities and healthcare, including limited access to regular electricity and potable water, lack of health insurance, high out-of-pocket costs, and discrimination. Healthcare providers identified the expansion of a community health promoter program and mobile medical teams as potential solutions. English and French language training, health promotion, and medical skills development were identified as additional strategies by which teams could support community development. Conclusion. Visiting volunteer groups could work in partnership with community organizations to address these barriers by providing short-term access to services, while developing local capacity in education, healthcare, and health promotion in the long-term. Future work should also carefully evaluate the impacts and contributions of such volunteer efforts.Peer Reviewe

Health and Social Needs in Three Migrant Worker Communities around La Romana, Dominican Republic, and the Role of Volunteers: A Thematic Analysis and Evaluation

Objective. For decades, Haitian migrant workers living in bateyes around La Romana, Dominican Republic, have been the focus of short-term volunteer medical groups from North America. To assist these efforts, this study aimed to characterize various health and social needs that could be addressed by volunteer groups. Design. Needs were assessed using semistructured interviews of community and professional informants, using a questionnaire based on a social determinants of health framework, and responses were qualitatively analysed for common themes. Results. Key themes in community responses included significant access limitations to basic necessities and healthcare, including limited access to regular electricity and potable water, lack of health insurance, high out-of-pocket costs, and discrimination. Healthcare providers identified the expansion of a community health promoter program and mobile medical teams as potential solutions. English and French language training, health promotion, and medical skills development were identified as additional strategies by which teams could support community development. Conclusion. Visiting volunteer groups could work in partnership with community organizations to address these barriers by providing short-term access to services, while developing local capacity in education, healthcare, and health promotion in the long-term. Future work should also carefully evaluate the impacts and contributions of such volunteer efforts

Repurposing Existing Medications for Coronavirus Disease 2019: Protocol for a Rapid and Living Systematic Review

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has no known specific treatments. However, there might be in vitro and early clinical data as well as evidence from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome that could inform clinicians and researchers. This systematic review aims to create priorities for future research of drugs repurposed for COVID-19. Methods: This systematic review will include in vitro, animal, and clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of a list of 34 specific compounds and four groups of drugs identified in a previous scoping review. Studies will be identified both from traditional literature databases and pre-print servers. Outcomes assessed will include time to clinical improvement, time to viral clearance, mortality, length of hospital stay, and proportions transferred to the intensive care unit and intubated, respectively. We will use the GRADE methodology to assess the quality of the evidence. Discussion: The challenge posed by COVID-19 requires not just a rapid review of drugs that can be repurposed but also a sustained effort to integrate new evidence into a living systematic review

Search for heavy resonances decaying to WW, WZ, or WH boson pairs in a final state consisting of a lepton and a large-radius jet in proton-proton collisions at s =13 TeV

A search for new heavy resonances decaying to pairs of bosons (WW, WZ, or WH) is presented. The analysis uses data from proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1). One of the bosons is required to be a W boson decaying to an electron or muon and a neutrino, while the other boson is required to be reconstructed as a single jet with mass and substructure compatible with a quark pair from a W, Z, or Higgs boson decay. The search is performed in the resonance mass range between 1.0 and 4.5 TeVand includes a specific search for resonances produced via vector boson fusion. The signal is extracted using a twodimensional maximum likelihood fit to the jet mass and the diboson invariant mass distributions. No significant excess is observed above the estimated background. Model-independent upper limits on the production cross sections of spin-0, spin-1, and spin-2 heavy resonances are derived as functions of the resonance mass and are interpreted in the context of bulk radion, heavy vector triplet, and bulk graviton models. The reported bounds are the most stringent to date

Study of quark and gluon jet substructure in Z plus jet and dijet events from pp collisions

Measurements of jet substructure describing the composition of quark- and gluon-initiated jets are presented. Proton-proton (pp) collision data at √ s = 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1 . Generalized angularities are measured that characterize the jet substructure and distinguish quark- and gluon-initiated jets. These observables are sensitive to the distributions of transverse momenta and angular distances within a jet. The analysis is performed using a data sample of dijet events enriched in gluon-initiated jets, and, for the first time, a Z+jet event sample enriched in quark-initiated jets. The observables are measured in bins of jet transverse momentum, and as a function of the jet radius parameter. Each measurement is repeated applying a “soft drop” grooming procedure that removes soft and large angle radiation from the jet. Using these measurements, the ability of various models to describe jet substructure is assessed, showing a clear need for improvements in Monte Carlo generators

Search for a right-handed W boson and a heavy neutrino in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for a right-handed W boson (WR) and a heavy neutrino (N), in a final state consisting of two same-flavor leptons (ee or μμ) and two quarks. The search is performed with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The search covers two regions of phase space, one where the decay products of the heavy neutrino are merged into a single large-area jet, and one where the decay products are well separated. The expected signal is characterized by an excess in the invariant mass distribution of the final-state objects. No significant excess over the standard model background expectations is observed. The observations are interpreted as upper limits on the product of WR production cross sections and branching fractions assuming that couplings are identical to those of the standard model W boson. For N masses mN equal to half the WR mass mWR (mN = 0.2 TeV), mWR is excluded at 95% confidence level up to 4.7 (4.8) and 5.0 (5.4) TeV for the electron and muon channels, respectively. This analysis provides the most stringent limits on the WR mass to date